La Concepción reservoir near Marbella is full

La Concepción reservoir near Marbella has been delcared as 100% full this week and excess water has been allowed to flow out through spillways.

The situation is very different from that of March when the dam gates had to be opened to release water due to the fast-rising levels.

The three spillways in La Concepción can filter out 580 cubic metres per second. It is expected that they will no longer be needed next week.

The latest figures from the Hidrosur network showed at 10am on Friday morning that the volume of water in La Concepción was 57.62 million cubic metres, 80,000 cubic metres above its theoretical capacity.

Water use on the Costa sees averages of 2,800 litres per second, peaking at 3,500.

Short-term drought measures brought in this last year include restoring Marbella's desalination plant to supply 20m cubic metres annually; medium-term plans focus on upgrading the outdated Verde treatment plant; and long-term projects include a second desalination plant near Mijas and the Gibralmedina reservoir, despite its 790-million-euro cost.

The area no longer has drought status but continues to manage limited water reserves carefully, with ongoing work to update dead storage facilities for extreme drought scenarios. La Concepción is a small reservoir and so the reserves run out faster in drought periods.